For the second time, the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta has upheld Florida’s controversial “Docs v. Glocks” law and lifted an injunction that now allows the state to enforce the measure.
Under the statute, physicians are restricted in the questions and comments they can make regarding firearms ownership. The law was passed in 2011, but has been hampered by court challenges for the past four years.
Physicians fought the law, as did anti-gun organizations, asserting that doctors have a responsibility to discuss gun storage and “offer common-sense advice about firearm safety,” said Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Florida, according to the Associated Press.
But Marion Hammer, executive director of the Unified Sportsmen of Florida, sees it differently. She said this ruling will “stop the political interrogation of gun owners and the children of gun owners when they seek medical care.”
The Appeals Court majority said the law does not violate the First Amendment, while dissenting Judge Charles Wilson insisted that it does. The majority opinion, written by Judge Gerald Tjoflat and quoted by the Associated Press, noted, “The act codifies the commonsense conclusion that good medical care does not require inquiry or record-keeping regarding firearms when unnecessary to a patient’s care—especially not when that inquiry or record-keeping constitutes such a substantial intrusion upon patient privacy.”
In a statement, Hammer said, “Simply put, physicians interrogating and lecturing parents and children about guns is not about gun safety. It is a political agenda to ban guns.
“Parents do not take their children to physicians for a political lecture against the ownership of firearms, they go there for medical care,” she added.
This ruling will likely be appealed, according to various published reports.
